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Tag Archives: identity

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I’m doing the Zero to Hero Challenge. Unfortunately, Day 2’s assignment is to flesh out the title of your blog and your tagline.

Here’s the thing though: until I come up with a definitive direction for this blog, my current, simplistic identity is the only rational choice.

You see, Identity is a pretty big thing for me. I went through a lot during high school and my early adult years, things I might disclose at a later date. Generally though, I often got lost inside my own head and completely removed myself from the world around me. I’ve spent the last three or four years trying to find who I am now and who I want to be in the future.

Many cultures believe naming things gives them power or that telling someone your name relinquishes power to that person. And, ya know, I always thought that was kind of ridiculous. I first learned about it in middle school with Greek Mythology but then you think about Bloody Mary and Beetlejuice, etc. But I grew up in a culture that makes you say not only your name but interesting facts about you on the first day of school, a culture where those who believe in the power of a name would be a constant state of discomfort.

The last few years have taught me just how right those cultures may be though. If someone knows your name, they think they know you and, by extension, think they have a right to know your life even if you don’t want to share it and then they judge you on it.

I’m guilty of it myself. I’ve definitely whipped out the ‘full name chastise’ method on friends and family, to be annoying or just to be cheeky. But let me tell you something really important that I’ve been learning in the last year: people only have as much power as you give them. The name isn’t really the power, the power is only what you make of it.